Since the advent of a circular knitting machine, there has been no change in the basic mechanism used for driving its needles in which the needle cylinder is driven to move the needle up and down along the contour of a knitting cam disposed under the needle cylinder.
However, since the vertical motion of the needle is determined by the configuration of said cam, the following problems are inevitable.
(1) The motion of the needle is delimited by the shape of the knitting cam. For example, depending on the shape of the adjacent cam, the motion wanted by the operator may be physically impossible to obtain.
(2) In order to vary the motion of needles, it is necessary to exchange the cams. Since this exchange is a time-consuming job, much hesitancy must be overcome to set a new needle motion.
(3) In the trouble-shooting of a circular knitting machine, it is necessary to verify that the knitting cams have not been worn out of shape but the above mechanical complexity is a major drawback in the maintenance of the circular knitting machine.
The present invention provides a circular knitting machine which does not require knitting cams which lie at the base of the above-mentioned problems.